


How (Not) to Get Over Your Crush

by tasteofsummersnow



Series: In Love with the Salt of You [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternative Universe - University, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Shirabu is Bad With Emotions and Communication, Shirabu is a pining mess, Whoever thought it was a good idea for him to deal with emotions: whyyyy?, basically a very self-indulgent roommate!AU, everyone's a dumbass because that's how I roll, oh and some swearing, plot-convenient blizzard, side KawaGoshi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21885211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tasteofsummersnow/pseuds/tasteofsummersnow
Summary: But this time, Shirabu’s determined to avoid Yahaba at all costs because he simply cannot find out about Shirabu’s crush on him. And what better way to make sure he never does than to simply nothavea crush on him anymore?Or: the one where Shirabu tries (and fails) to get over his crush on his roommate. But maybe that's not such a bad thing.
Relationships: Shirabu Kenjirou/Yahaba Shigeru
Series: In Love with the Salt of You [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1532384
Comments: 16
Kudos: 89





	How (Not) to Get Over Your Crush

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ShitabuKenjirou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShitabuKenjirou/gifts).



> I started writing this fic months ago at 2am because I wanted to make the lovely [@ShitabuKenjirou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShitabuKenjirou/pseuds/ShitabuKenjirou) smile. Between then and now, you've taught me A Lot about these characters and made me fall in love with them even more! So, yep, this one's for you again because it wouldn't exist without you in the first place! Thank you for everything, you're the best!💙✨
> 
> Also a big thank you to the amazing [@AllMyCharactersAreGay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllMyCharactersAreGay/pseuds/AllMyCharactersAreGay) for proof-reading this for me and just for being an amazing person and friend!!✨💙
> 
> (Yes, the working title for this was "Oh my god, they were roommates". No, I will not apologise for that.)
> 
> Don't ask me how the KawaGoshi happened, it was supposed to be just one tiny mention and then they suddenly became plot-relevant. Oops?
> 
> Anyways, please enjoy!✨🎈

Shirabu is going to kill Goshiki. Slowly and painfully. And he’s going to enjoy every second of it.

True, Shirabu might be partly to blame for this because, at the time, he didn’t care that Goshiki was there when he stormed into Taichi’s room to complain about his crush. 

But it’s mostly Goshiki’s fault.

What he overheard had been said in confidence. Sure, Shirabu hadn’t explicitly stated that, but every normal human being would understand that keeping something like this a secret went without saying.

Too bad Shirabu forgot that Goshiki was actually an alien of the species Idiot-blabbermouth from planet Won’t-shut-up. 

He is not sure whom Goshiki told exactly, but somehow, word of Shirabu’s crush got to Yahaba and now he won’t stop pestering Shirabu about it.

Which would already be bad enough under normal circumstances. 

It’s made about a thousand times worse by the fact that Yahaba is the one Shirabu has a crush on. Because Yahaba keeps asking him about it, full of cheery curiosity, proving just how very much he’s not interested in Shirabu. 

\---

The whole fiasco begins on a Wednesday morning when Yahaba comes back to their dorm room after his morning run and announces: “So, I hear you have a crush on someone. Anyone I know?”

Shirabu has never gone from half-asleep to wide-awake quite this quickly.

The “No!” he manages to get out sounds unconvincing even to his own ears and it does nothing to stop Yahaba from pestering him with questions for the rest of the day, undeterred by Shirabu’s evasive answers.

It doesn’t take long for Shirabu to snap.

“Stop fucking asking me about it. I said no and it’s none of your fucking business.”

He regrets it even before he sees the hurt flash in Yahaba’s eyes.

“Jeez, sorry, man, message received, I’ll stop asking.” His tone is light but his smile holds none of its usual cheerfulness.

“… Sorry,” Shirabu manages to get out. “I just don’t want to talk about it.”

“It’s fine, I get it,” Yahaba says, clasping his shoulder, “I really do.”

And that should have been the end of it.

But it isn’t. Yahaba stops asking questions about Shirabu’s crush but every once in a while, Shirabu can feel his curious eyes on him.

It’s unnerving because it suddenly makes Shirabu aware of his every action and just how much time of the day he spends thinking about Yahaba. It’s getting ridiculous, really.

So, he decides to do what he should have done months ago:

Get over his crush.

The best way to do that, he decides, is by avoiding Yahaba. 

And it works out better than expected. 

Maybe because Shirabu made plenty of contingency plans on how to avoid Yahaba four months back when he first realized that he had a crush on him and hoped that the feelings would disappear if he just spent less time with him. Obviously, it didn’t work but that could be blamed on the fact that Shirabu didn’t have the heart to actually go through with his plans for more than two days because he missed Yahaba’s stupid face too much. 

But this time, he’s determined to avoid Yahaba at all costs because he simply cannot find out about Shirabu’s crush on him. And what better way to make sure he never does than to simply not _have_ a crush on him anymore?

He originally planned to ease into the whole avoiding Yahaba plan but he ends up going cold-turkey on Saturday.

It’s Yahaba’s fault, of course. After he’s back later than usual from his morning run, he holds out Shirabu’s cup of morning coffee over his head and makes some stupid quip about Shirabu not being able to reach it. 

Shirabu jumps on the bed, plugs the coffee from Yahaba’s hand with a small victory cry and takes an eager swig. The coffee promptly burns his tongue but the pain is a small price to pay for coffee and the startled look on Yahaba’s face that slowly morphs into amusement. “You burnt your tongue, didn’t you?” 

“Shut up.” He takes another sip of coffee, just to prove his point, and manages to keep a neutral face.

“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” Yahaba laughs, all fondly sparkling eyes and dimpled cheeks.

Shirabu almost chokes on his coffee. He needs to set his plan into motion _now_ before his crush gets any worse than it already is.

So, he hops off the bed, grabs his phone and decides to call his grandma.

Shirabu then spends the rest of his weekend being nagged and pampered to equal amounts. It’s surprisingly pleasant and he promises himself to visit his grandparents more often.

When he makes it back on Sunday night, Yahaba is fast asleep on top of a pile of books and papers on his desk. Shirabu wakes him by shaking his shoulder. 

Yahaba blinks at him with big, sleepy eyes, ink stains on his left cheek. “Oh, Shirabu, welcome home.”

“We have beds for a reason, idiot. Sleeping on top of books won’t suddenly make you any less stupid.” With that, he quickly turns around before Yahaba has the chance to notice him blushing. Damnit, the weekend away did not help in the slightest.

But that doesn’t mean he’s going to give up on his plan. On the contrary, he needs to go through with it even more now.

Evading Yahaba during the week is easier than expected.

The mornings are the worst. Usually, Yahaba would get up before him, go on a morning run and grab Shirabu some coffee from the kitchen downstairs on the way back. It is about as good as mornings get when they don’t include sleeping in. But now, Shirabu has to force himself to get up while Yahaba is out, brave the coffee-run in the kitchen, and content himself with mediocre coffee because Yahaba is somehow the only one who can get their ancient coffee machines to make decent coffee. And instead of waking up slowly to Yahaba chattering about all the weird and interesting things he noticed on his run, Shirabu now has to get dressed and ready in a hurry in order to be done before Yahaba is back. It’s the worst.

Avoiding Yahaba throughout the day isn’t all that difficult, really. They’re both in the last year of their bachelor’s degree and absolutely swamped with work. At this point, the library has become a second home to him anyways. And since the library for foreign languages and Japanese literature is on the other end of campus from the business school’s, Shirabu hardly ever runs into Yahaba throughout the day. They used to get lunch together but it’s their mutual understanding that with exams coming up, neither of them has the time to spare.

The evenings are the trickiest. 

Monday works out fine because Yahaba—nerd that he is—has his weekly film club meetings and Shirabu just pretends that he’s asleep already when Yahaba comes back to their room, softly humming a melody that Shirabu thinks he remembers from one of the karaoke nights at Tendou-san’s. 

On Tuesday, he ends up crashing another one of Taichi and Goshiki’s dates. He had planned on going out with Terushima but that soon turned into going out with Terushima and twenty of his friends and Shirabu is not a fan of going to his lectures hungover and sleep-deprived, so he bids his good-byes fairly quickly and finds himself in front of Taichi’s dorm room again. The look Taichi shoots him when he opens the door, shirt thrown on inside-out and hair a mess, is positively murderous but Shirabu doesn’t care. He had to listen to Taichi pining for Goshiki and his stupid bowl-cut for over two years, he has _earned_ the right to crash their dates. The evening turns out surprisingly pleasant, once Goshiki manages to stop blushing after Shirabu commented on his hickeys.

Shirabu spends Wednesday night holed up in the library until it closes at midnight. It’s not as bad as it sounds, after all, he gets a lot of work done and he has a quietly sobbing Master’s student and someone who’s surrounded by a small mountain of discarded drafts for their current project to keep him company until the very end. When they all leave the building together, they nod good-bye, a silent vow to never speak of this night again.

As he makes his way back to the dorm room, enjoying the steady snowfall, he decides that he’s getting pretty good at avoiding Yahaba.

There’s only one disadvantage to this tactic.

Shirabu misses spending time with him. He misses it a lot.

They have been roommates for almost three years now and while things were initially awkward, Shirabu has come to learn that a roommate isn’t automatically someone you despise but have to tolerate anyways. 

Instead, he and Yahaba have become friends. 

Over the course of the past three years, Shirabu has grown used to being around Yahaba.

They have their own little routines—like their movie nights every Thursday, where one of them gets to pick a movie and they make fun of it all the way through. 

But it’s mostly the little things, the ones he doesn’t even notice in their day-to-day life anymore because he’s so used to them, that he misses.

Like the way Yahaba will sometimes absentmindedly hum, not even realizing it until Shirabu says something. Like making fun of Yahaba’s taste in music, even though he has saved some of the songs on his phone, because they remind him of Yahaba. Like venting his day to Yahaba, who will listen to it all attentively, always ready to get angry and frustrated with Shirabu but who will also never fail to remind him that “you have to end on one good thing that happened today”. (And how often these days had the good thing been ‘I got to see your stupid face.’). And just… hanging out in the same room, not even doing anything together but knowing that, if he wanted to talk about anything at all, Yahaba would be there and he would listen. And coffee. 

It’s not even been a week since he started avoiding Yahaba, but Shirabu misses all of that. A lot.

Still, he needs to get rid of his crush on Yahaba because he’s not going to discuss it with him. Ever.

Or so he thought. But then the steady snowfall from the night before turns into the blizzard of the decade and now they’re snowed in and have been strongly advised not to leave the building. Classes have been suspended, too.

Which would be great on any other day. But now it just means that Shirabu is stuck with Yahaba, who is looking at him with more curiosity than ever before, and the realization of just how much his avoidance tactic isn’t working yet.

It’s a recipe for disaster.

Knowing this, Shirabu does his best to avoid Yahaba as much as possible under the circumstances anyway. 

His skin still feels shriveled up from the one-and-a-quarter-hour long shower he took. He spent more time holed up in a bathroom stall than he’d ever like to admit, and he only left because someone decided to take a worryingly loud dump in the stall next to his. 

He tried to hide in Taichi’s room too, but Taichi kicked him out as soon as Goshiki appeared. Shirabu thought that Goshiki looked stupid standing there, with an ugly hat, dripping wet from the snow and a bright red nose, but Taichi had disagreed and shot Shirabu a look that clearly meant “you better leave now or you’re gonna see things you don’t want to”. Shirabu ran for his life.

And so, he is back in his room where Yahaba is currently poking his cheek and Shirabu is trying his hardest not to blush.

“I’m trying to do my homework,” he insists for the third time in as many minutes.

“It doesn’t look like the blizzard is ending any time soon, you can do it tomorrow instead. Come on, Shirabu, I feel like we haven’t hung out in ages…” Yahaba gives him the puppy dog eyes and his best pout. It should look ridiculous. (It does not. It’s cute.)

“Fine, fine!” Shirabu gives in, closing the book on market failures and government interventions that he wasn’t really reading in the first place.

“The new episode of that cooking show you like came out yesterday. The one where everyone gets yelled at. How about we watch that?” Yahaba offers.

“Sure, I guess.” Shirabu doesn’t let his relief show on his face but watching something means that Yahaba’s going to be focusing on the screen instead of throwing Shirabu those curious looks.

They settle down on Yahaba’s bed, Shirabu’s laptop balanced on their legs.

Shirabu tries his best to concentrate on the show but it’s hard when he is engulfed in Yahaba’s scent and Yahaba is laughing and scoffing and making snarky remarks next to him. 

Most of Shirabu’s brainpower goes into trying not to think about the warmth Yahaba is radiating or how easy it would be to take his hand. 

That’s also why he only registers that Yahaba asked him a question, when he’s poking Shirabu’s cheek again.

“What?” he snaps, mostly to hide how flustered he is.

“I asked if you were ever going to tell me who your crush is. Or if that’s too much, what they are like?”

“A giant pain in the ass,” Shirabu grumbles.

“Oh, come on! How is that going to help me determine who it is? You think everyone you know belongs in that category!” Yahaba protests, laughing.

“Not true. I never thought that about Ushijima-san.”

He also doesn’t really think Yahaba is annoying but there’s no way he’s admitting to that.

“Yeah, yeah, we all know that. Perfect UshiWaka san. But it’s not him again, is it?”

“What? No, come on, I’m not fifteen anymore…”

“Lucky you, otherwise you’d still have that horrible haircut.” Yahaba quips, his smile clear in his voice.

Shirabu gives him a shove. “Like yours was any better!”

“It was! Anyways, tell me, are they anything like your beloved UshiWaka?”

“Not really, no,” Shirabu scoffs before he remembers that he isn’t supposed to answer and belatedly slaps a hand in front of his mouth.

Yahaba grins triumphantly.

“No more questions”, Shirabu grumbles. He can feel his ears burning. It’s all Yahaba’s fault. He has no business looking this cute with his stupid grin and his stupid dimples.

“Awwww, Shirabu, you’re blushing,” Yahaba coos.

“Shut up, I’m not!”

“Yes, you are! Come on, tell me more about them!”

“No.”

“Then I’ll just have to guess!” Yahaba declares.

Shirabu shrugs. “Good luck with that,” he scoffs and tries to concentrate on the cooking show again.

It only works until Yahaba asks: “Is it Kawanishi?”

Shirabu whips around to face him. “What the fuck, Yahaba?”

“Hey, it could be. You’re the tragic hero, suffering in silence after you brought him and Goshiki together, it would make total sense!” Yahaba says with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“I hate you.”

“Not Kawanishi then… Goshiki?”

“What? Yahaba, _no_. Are you suffering from delusions? He’s the most annoying person I’ve ever met. And on top of that, I’m pretty sure he’s currently very, very busy with Kawanishi. Urgh. Great. Thanks for that mental image. And before you get any more crazy ideas, no it’s not Tendou-san either. Or any of my old teammates for that matter.”

“How about that guy you did the group project with? The old Datekou Captain? Futakuchi!”

“… I’m not sure how you’re getting these ideas. I literally wanted to strangle him for the entire duration of that project…”

“Kinky,” Yahaba says, wiggling his eyebrows.

Shirabu groans, hiding his blushing face in his hands.

“Oh, I know! Is it that pretty senpai of yours? Michimiya-san? She came by to return your books the other day and she was under the impression that you’re a nice person. That was weird…”

“Hey! I am nice, just not to people who are as stupid as they are tall,” Shirabu protests, shoving Yahaba’s shoulder.

“Chill, I’m just messing with you. But is it her?”

“No, it’s not. And it’s not going to be anyone else you mention,” Shirabu groans. This is getting more and more ridiculous. 

“Really? And what do I get if I get it right?”, Yahaba asks, looking at Shirabu with an undecipherable expression on his face.

“Nothing. Because you won’t,” Shirabu replies maybe a bit too gruffly. This entire conversation is embarrassing and it just reinforces how much Yahaba isn’t interested in him.

“In that case, you have nothing to lose, right? How about this: if I get it right, you owe me a favor. If I get it wrong, I owe you. I’ll even proof-read your boring essays about macroeconomics or whatever.”

Shirabu thinks about this for a second, then he says: “If you get it wrong, you have to stop asking me about my crush.”

“Deal,” Yahaba says. But then he doesn’t keep going.

“So?” Shirabu asks impatiently.

Yahaba takes a deep breath. “It’s me, isn’t it?” he asks softly.

Shirabu flinches so much that the laptop slips from his legs onto the bed.

His brain is screaming at him to run but Shirabu is frozen solid, staring at Yahaba wide-eyed.

“Shirabu?” Yahaba is biting his lip, looking at him questioningly.

Finally, Shirabu breaks out of his stupor. He scoots away from Yahaba awkwardly. All he can think of is getting far, far away and never having to deal with this again.

But then Yahaba grabs his wrist. “Wait. It _is_ me, right?”

Shirabu unsuccessfully tries to yank his wrist back. 

When he realizes that he can’t escape this, he gives in. “Yes,” he whispers hoarsely. He doesn’t look at Yahaba. Doesn’t want to see his expression. Doesn’t want to know if his confession is going to be the end of their friendship.

But then, Yahaba does something unexpected. He says: “Good.” He says it firmly, but there is also something else in his voice. Relief.

Shirabu looks up.

Yahaba is smiling at him, unsure but brilliant.

Shirabu doesn’t understand. “What–“

“You owe me a favor, remember?”

“Yes, but… Yahaba, what the…”

“Kiss me!”

“Huh?!”

 _What_.

This… he can’t have heard this correctly. Yahaba. Just asked Shirabu. To kiss him. That can’t be right.

“Damn, Kawanishi was right… I can’t believe you’re this surprised…” Yahaba chuckles.

“Excuse me?! You just asked me to kiss you, why the fuck wouldn’t I be surprised?”

“You tell me. I’ve only been dropping hints that I like you for, what, two years now?”

“You… have?”

The look Yahaba shoots him is disbelieving but fond. “Yes!!” he all but shouts. “I tried to bake a cake for your birthday. I let you steal my cookies and I’ve even started buying your favorite brand even though the white chocolate chips are a crime against nature. I went to that super-smelly sewage museum with you even though I wasn’t the one who had to write an essay about it. I think… I think I told you that you’re the most beautiful person I ever met at Ennoshita’s birthday party but honestly, the memories are a bit hazy and you were worse off than me, so you probably don’t remember. Still, I… I’m literally constantly touching you. Have you ever seen me cuddle up to Shinji the way I do with you?”

“Oh…” is all Shirabu manages to say. He… now that Yahaba has pointed it out, it does make sense.

But Yahaba is not done yet. “Do you think I brave the coffee-craze three dorm buildings over every morning for all my friends?”

“Wait, what? Three buildings over? What?” Shirabu is dealing with too much new information right now.

“Yeah. I know you don’t like the coffee made by the coffee machines in our building, so I’m always getting it in Shinji’s building instead. He used to let me in every morning but at some point, he just got me a key card to the building instead…” Yahaba rubs a hand over his neck, smiling at him sheepishly.

“I didn’t know that… What the hell, Yahaba? It’s just coffee, the one from downstairs is fine, idiot.”

Yahaba snorts. “It’s coffee. There is no way it’s ever fine. But, you know, I like the way you smile when you actually enjoy it.”

For a moment, they’re just looking at each other, wide-eyed, then they both turn away groaning. 

“I can’t believe you just said that, you fucking sap”, Shirabu says, hiding his face in his hands as if that is going to make his blush any less obvious.

“I didn’t _mean_ to, it just slipped out. Forget I ever said that or I’ll never bring you coffee again.”

“Fine. But just because no one can ever know I like someone as embarrassing as you.”

“You don’t get to say that, you said that my smile is ‘so fucking cute’ with my ‘stupid dimples’ and that you ‘could look at it all day and never get bored’, ring any bells?”

“Shut up, I didn’t. How do you know that anyways?” Shirabu remembers saying something like that to Taichi but he would never be caught dead saying something this sappy to anyone else.

“Kawanishi told me.”

“He what?”

“He told me. Well, he all but yelled it at me, as much as Kawanishi ever yells anyways. He waited for me outside my classroom and then he went on and on about how done he was with you interrupting his and Goshiki’s dates because you didn’t want to man up and talk to me even though we obviously like each other. He also threatened that I better do something about this because you wouldn’t, and if you kept interrupting his dates, he couldn’t guarantee for your well-being…”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. Kinoshita had a good laugh about it.”

“So, you knew because of Taichi? I thought it was Goshiki for sure… Planned to murder the wrong person. Wait… if you knew then why were you asking me all those stupid questions? You could just have said something, idiot.” 

“Yeah, but where would the fun in that be?” Before Shirabu can protest, he continues: “Come on, I’ve been pining for you for _years_. You started acting weird a couple of months ago, so I figured you found out. But then you started blushing a lot around me and… I wasn’t sure if I was reading the whole thing right, so I thought I’d just wait and see what you’d do. But apparently what you did was cockblocking Kawanishi, so here we are.” Yahaba sounds so incredibly fond, it’s almost enough to make Shirabu blush again.

“So, basically, what this boils down to, is, I murder both you and Kawanishi, but not Goshiki?” he says, trying his hardest to fight off his smile.

“Woah, woah, no murdering anyone, please! Can I… interest you in that kiss instead?” Yahaba asks in a tone that he probably thinks is smooth. It isn’t really, but Shirabu doesn’t mind.

“I guess,” he says, giving up the battle against his cheek muscles and offering Yahaba a small smile. He gets the most blinding, happy grin in return.

“Nice!”

Maybe instead of murdering Taichi, he’ll just tell him ‘thank you’ instead.

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language, so you're always more than welcome to point out mistakes!!
> 
> Thanks for reading, and kudos and comments are always appreciated!✨
> 
> Come, scream about Haikyuu!! with me [here](https://tasteofsummersnow.tumblr.com/)!!


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